Ideas for underplanting around silver birch

Turbulent Bill

I've a stand of three Himilayan (silver) birch in a south / west-facing corner of the garden. They're currently underplanted with some generic evergreen scrubs, but the shrubs are too big and dense even with regular pruning. It's taking from the beauty of the trees, and they're blocking the light into the corner.

Any suggestions for an improvement? I'm pretty certain I'll remove the shrubs, but struggling to decide what to replace them with. Dogwood for winter colour, some foxgloves for a mini forest vibe during the summer?

looksee

I don't think I would put shrubs under silver birches at all. Mine are growing out of grass (the 'lawn'), eventually I might encourage some bluebells or snowdrops or hardy cyclamen but I think shrubs would clutter them too much.

Reckless Abandonment

Epimediums work great under them.

secman

We have 4 Himalayan birch, they are white bark, the silver ones are different. We just have them in a bed of bark, makes the white stand out more against darker ground. On the left side of photo.

The Continental Op

Cornus canadensis and Cyclamen Coum are two that spring to mind.

Fully agree with the Epimediums and there are loads of other things that might take off, lily of the valley and snowdrops would be another must for me. Erythroniums would be another.

OscarMIlde

What about hardy geranium Rozanne. It will flower from June to November and come back every year. It's a really good pollinator and will grow well in shade.

I've a silver birch (betula pendula) in south /sw facing corner. My garden is quite small and sloped so I was able to use the variance in elevation to help plant where normally it might be difficult given the shallow birch roots.

I semi-terraced the slope which gave me pockets that are out of reach of the roots and also created rockery beds that are handy for alpine type planting but also a good spot to hide pots for hostas so they don't get drained of water either.

Might give you a sense of the elevation and how I used it to plant around the birch.

Despite it being shady I've been able to grow a hydrangea Annabel tucked in behind it which brightens up the dark corner, and other shrubs like chocolate Eupatorium and photinia which is fiery red from spring. These are under planted with geranium biokovo and bergenia which both do great in relatively dry shade. This spot is interspersed with spring flowering perennials like aquilegia and daffodils too so plenty of year round interest.

Aside from the potted hostas, the rockery contains ferns, campanula, dicentra, carex gold grass, geranium striatum and some lamium winding it's way around it.

Just out of the reach of the roots but under some of the canopy most of the planting is part sun so while I wouldn't put geranium Rozanne directly beneath it, I do have it on the other side of the path along with verbena, Japanese anemone and other full sun fluff.

Oh yeah and some Heuchera/ella, Brunnera and box tucked in where it can 🤗

(many of the early flowering plants have been cut back but will probably give another flush before the end of the year, the campanula and geranium were all very full until the beginning of July, I usually stick some begonias in pots in between to keep some colour in the space)

looksee

That's a lovely display of plants, they blend in very well.

Rows Grower

Ferns, montbretia, fox gloves and crocosmia all look natural and attractive under the silver Birch.

Birches are aphid magnets so everything surrounding it gets covered in honeydew, especially the hostas. They are very thirsty trees and if it gets too hot can yellow and drop a lot of leaf, fortunately this year we've had plenty of rain so it's very happy with itself. I did have some foxglove but moved them to the other side of the garden though they were lovely, just a bit big for the space. Other than that I try to keep the area mulched/fed regularly as it can dry out and get leached by the birch. I think once you avoid the root system anything goes.

Turbulent Bill

Thanks for all the suggestions, lots of excellent ideas.

The birches' root systems are definitely a worry. From bulb planting in the same area, I know it's a mesh of shallow roots. How tolerant are the birches to these being displaced / damaged during planting? The surrounding bushes are healthy, so I'm less concerned about nutrient or water depletion.

I've cut through a few but nothing that has caused great damage, it's more a case of trying to find room in between them that's decent enough to grow anything in hence the raised rockery bed type scenario.

looksee

I moved into a house that had a concrete slab with a heap of soil that had been abandoned on it. It must have been there a long while as an adjacent silver birch had sent a massive root through it over the concrete. When I got round to it I just sawed off the root at the edge of the concrete, which was right up against the tree trunk. I waited rather anxiously to see if the tree would die. It completely ignored the fact that it had lost a major root and 3 years later is fine.

Fortunately (or not) I live on land carved out of a rocky outcrop so there's only so far it's roots can go before it hits bedrock. The hydrangea is only growing there because it's basically planted in a carved out piece of a boulder :)

If you've already got established plants around it you have the advantage of being able to fill those voids if you do remove them and the network of roots will already have worked around them and as long as there's not major root disturbance new plants going in will do fine.

Those roots will go looking for any water or feed you give new plants until they're established, especially if they have been damaged in the process.

jtown

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122415565#Comment_122415565

Fab!! What boarder have you used around them? To help keep the bark in ?

I am trying to figure out what to put around mine long term - like a brick

secman

We used oak sleepers , new, not old railway ones. They are angled to look like a diamond shape from the back window. But sleepers are same length so look square from alternative angle 🙃

jtown

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122475257#Comment_122475257

Would you mid sending a close up pic - this looks the job in fairness

secman

A pic from 6 years ago, they have thickened up considerably on last 6 years.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122478981#Comment_122478981

Did you plant 5 and loose one? Always like to plant odd numbers :-)

secman

Yep we planted 5 and one snapped, it was at front of diamond, we considered replacing it but visually we thought it looked better without the front one.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122479685#Comment_122479685

3 with one to the side looks fine. 4 in a square can look wrong.